How to Insert Bullet Points in Excel

Knowing how to insert bullet points may prove very useful when trying to articulate points in a clear and concise manner. It is for the reason that we would be touching on how to insert bullet points in Excel. There are various ways of inserting bullet points in excel but we would be reviewing the three easiest ways in order not to waste too much time and complicate things.

  • Insert bullet points through keyboard shortcuts
  • Create custom format for bullet points
  • Insert bullet points using symbols

Insert Bullet Points through Keyboard Shortcuts

Inserting bullet points through keyboard shortcuts is the easiest way to go about this. All you need to know is the right combination and where to use it. What is the right combination you might ask, well let’s find out below.

Use the combination in the image below to produce the bullet point you desire. Kindly note that this would only work for numeric keyboards, and not the row of numbers along the top of the keyboard.

Bullet points 1

Creating Custom Format for Bullet Points

This is a longer process for the previous section treated. In this section, we deploy the same keyboard combination, but not directly to the cell, but instead the custom number format. Let’s see the steps below:

Step 1: Right click on any cell you want to add the bullet point to and click on format cells or press Ctrl + 1 to pop out the format cells box.

Step 2: On the number tab, under category, select custom

Bullet points 2a

Step 3: In the text box, type in Alt + 7 for solid bullets or Alt + 9 for unfilled bullets (please go through the Keyboard shortcut section for more types of bullets) then follow whichever keyboard combination with a space and the @ character.

“● @” (solid bullets) – Press Alt + 7 on the numeric keypad, followed by Space and then @ character

“○ @” (unfilled bullets) – Press Alt + 9 on the numeric keypad, followed by Space and then @ character

Step 4: Click OK

Bullet points 3

Result: Bullet points are added to the range we specified in step 1

Bullet points 4

Insert Bullet Points using Symbols

Some laptop models do not come with a numeric keypad, for people with such laptops, the first two sections would be practically useless. Thankfully however, there is a way to insert bullet points without having to touch your keyboard. Let’s take a look at how:

Step 1: Select the cell you want to add the bullet point

Step 2: Navigate to the Insert tab > Symbols group > click symbol

Bullet points 5

Step 3: In the font box, select the font you prefer or you can leave as normal text

Step 4: Go through the symbols available and select the symbol you prefer for your bulleted list and click on Insert

Bullet points 6

Note, scrolling through the plethora of symbols might be difficult especially if you already have a symbol in mind. It is easier when you have the character code of some symbols in mind. Let’s see some character codes of some popular symbols below:

Character code symbols

Leave a Comment